Educating The Smoker

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30482, 2 July 1964, Page 12

Educating The Smoker

The latest move in the United States against lung cancer will be watched from all over the world with interest, if not with much hope, among those dedicated to its elimination. By next year every cigarette packet sold in the United States must bear a warning that cigarette smoking is dangerous and may “ cause “death from cancer”. From July 1 next year the warning must also be included in every cigarette advertisement. These measures are the outcome of the report of a committee of experts to the SurgeonGeneral that “cigarette-smoking is a health hazard “of sufficient importance in the United States to “ warrant appropriate remedial action ”. The action now announced will be unpopular in the six tobacco-growing States of the South, which control a surprising number of Congressional committees. It will also fail to please the public health reformers, who wanted a complete ban on cigarette advertising, as in Italy. The statutory insistence on a lung-cancer warning was about as far as the Administration could go at present, specially as the tobacco industry provides employment for 17 million people, earns substantial export income, and yields more than £lOOO million a year in Federal, State, and local taxes. The Government’s new regulations are certain to be tested in the courts by the tobacco firms. Even if the regulations are upheld, it is doubtful if their enforcement will have much deterrent effect. But at least their enactment shows the Administration’s concern over the damage to public health through cigarette-smoking. Like the recent restrictions on cigarette advertising by broadcasting and television stations, and the voluntary restraints imposed by advertisers themselves, the latest move is a further step in the education of the cigarette-smoking public.